Wilhelm Opus 123 to St. Francis de Sales Oratory

Sebastian M. Glück, New York, New York; The William and Alice Stack Cathedral Organ, The Cathedral of Christ the King, Superior, Wisconsin

Sebastian M. Glück

Sebastian M. Glück, New York, New York

The William and Alice Stack Cathedral Organ

The Cathedral of Christ the King, Superior, Wisconsin

Ground was broken for the Cathedral of Christ the King on June 23, 1926, and the building was dedicated on Christmas Day of 1927. Elegant simplicity marks the neo-Romanesque structure and its campanile, built upon a raised platform and standing nobly against the Wisconsin sky. Romanesque architecture, which features thick masonry walls with small windows rather than large expanses of flexible stained glass, normally would provide ample reverberation and the preservation of most frequencies. The cathedral’s interior stood unfinished until a fund drive was initiated in 1937 to complete the decorations and furnishings, installing carpet in the sanctuary and sound-absorbing materials covering the ceiling and the upper side and rear walls of the nave. Despite the great cubic volume of the building, reverberation was annihilated, with a range of .94 to 1.0 seconds. The choir sang from a low-ceilinged gallery above the narthex, its voices struggling to reach the crossing with the inadequate accompaniment of a small organ with failing digital stops.

A new acoustic

In 2003, Rev. Richard Vosko was engaged as the liturgical designer, along with architect Robert Semborski of Architectural Resources, Inc., of Duluth, Minnesota, to begin a revision of the cathedral, with Scott R. Riedel & Associates, Ltd. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as acoustic and organ consultants. The choir was relocated into the Epistle-side transept, and the altar, ambo, and liturgical functions onto a raised sanctuary space that extends into the crossing. The project was completed and dedicated in February of 2005.

The installation of terrazzo paving and the removal of the sound absorbing ceiling and side wall treatments were initial steps toward doubling the reverberation time. A coffered, hard plaster ceiling and hard surface clerestory walls now result in clear, intelligible speech and more than two seconds of gracious reverberation. Modest amounts of sound absorbing treatment on the rear wall prevent unwanted reflections and repetitions.

Upper-level balconies and ambulatory spaces flanking the sanctuary were redesigned as organ chambers for a future instrument, and the building was outfitted with electrical conduits and ductwork in anticipation of the installation of a new organ. The former hybrid organ was sold, and the cathedral used a piano as their primary musical instrument after the building renovation.

In 2003 the Cathedral Organ Committee had selected another organbuilder to build a new organ, but the price of the large instrument was formidable. The project was set aside until Scott Riedel recommended that I review the circumstances, since he had served as the consultant on three organs I had built across the country and believed that a different approach would lead to success. Client, consultant, and builder were in agreement that if an appropriate heritage organ could be adapted to the situation, the timeline could be compressed and the budget reduced. I made it very clear that despite the prevailing hopeful mythology, a complete restoration or reconfiguration of an existing organ might equal or exceed the cost of a new one.

Over a period of years, I located and offered three possibilities to the cathedral. The first was a late Frank Roosevelt organ that I had purchased and stored before its abandoned home was razed. Future plans had not been finalized in Superior, so I incorporated that instrument into a 62-rank double organ for another client (see The Diapason cover feature, April 2018). Two substantial, serially altered Aeolian-Skinner organs subsequently were brought under consideration. Both of those situations were so heavily freighted with bureaucracy, politics, and interference by middlemen that a choice was made to redirect the search.

On another front, unforeseen circumstances made the cathedral organ project possible. A church in the northeast had purchased, under my direction, carefully selected ranks from organs that had been dismantled and placed on the open market. That client chose to wait patiently for the time when they could build the organ I had designed for them without preparing any stops for future installation. At the point of signing a contract, Hurricane Sandy severely damaged that congregation’s roof, existing organ, and organ chamber. Their pipe organ would have to wait until they restored their building, and the pipes remained in storage. An evaluation of the needs of both potential clients led to the sale of that pipework to the Cathedral of Christ the King.

The available ranks were suited to adaptation for an organ in the cathedral, with adjustments to the specification, some rescaling of the fluework, and the construction of some new pipes. The clear mission was to serve the Catholic liturgy, congregational singing, and the established organ and choral literature. There was no interest in adopting the whims of any particular temporary organbuilding trend that might prove regrettable in the future. The specifications were built upon the features held in common by the instruments of the important eras and cultures of organ composition and building. That information was filtered through the registration guidelines handed down by tradition, performance practice treatises, and the composers’ scores. Such tenets distilled the stoplist toward a practical design that endures rather than frustrates.

The musical blueprint

What began as a two-manual design grew to three manuals in light of how much substantive literature called for a third, and how the nuances of choral accompaniment could be expanded. During the century and a half that Americans have placed Choir divisions under expression, these sections often have been of nebulous conception and could not serve the literature. I walked the conservative path of an unenclosed eight-rank Positiv division in the Gospel case, with the Great in the Epistle case. These divisions enjoy the spatial separation of a Baroque Positiv in a dorsal case while keeping the organ entirely on one level for the sake of tuning stability. The interior of the organ features abundant lighting, broad walkboards, sturdy tuning perches, and secure ladders to facilitate its future care and longevity.

Pipe organs of moderate size can exhibit some predictability in tonal design if the builder is a conscientious steward of a client’s funds; each indulgent frill that supplants a requisite voice is an extravagant waste—a disservice to music, liturgy, and education. Instruments of this size can be conceived with measured additions to the safety of the template, increasing color and utility without being irresponsible. My ethical obligation to keep the instrument free of artificially generated voices served to focus the stoplist and curb tonal temptation.

The forthright core of the Great division is its Diapason chorus, with the bottom octave of the 8′ standing in the speaking façade. The large scale 8′ Harmonic Flute, which takes its lowest nine pipes from the Open Diapason to maintain open tone throughout the compass, is joined by the 16′/8′ wooden Bourdon unit and the Viole de Gambe borrowed from the Swell. The 4′ Spire Flute is voiced and finished such that it can be used in unconventional combinations with other flue stops for a variety of tonal colors. The firm and round Trumpet is an extension of the Pedal reed unit, and although a theoretical compromise, is not detected as such by the listener in the now-sumptuous acoustic.

The Swell division is located in the triforium of the Epistle side of the sanctuary, with shutter fronts opening into the sanctuary as well as to the transept behind the Great windchest. This second set of shutters prevents the Swell from sounding distant and directs its tone toward the choir stalls in the transept. The division is planted on a slider soundboard like the rest of the organ, with the exception of the reeds and the Viole de Gambe, which stand on an electropneumatic unit windchest.

The American Swell division, for decades gutted of its 8′ Open Diapason, is enjoying a return of this valuable pitch base. It is included here as a hearty slotted version that is immeasurably useful in the liturgy as well as in the performance of organ and choral music. The Swell Diapason chorus is marked by a brighter Mixture than that of the Great, and although it contains only three ranks, it bears two unisons and one quint throughout the playing range to maintain clarity in voice leading. Incisive French strings of slotted construction take their traditional places, and the undulant makes a good pair with the Diapason as well. The parent rank stands behind the shutter front near the Great windchest, as it is borrowed onto the Great to complete the quartet of stops for the fonds d’huit.

The choir of flutes includes the elements of the Cornet Composé. With only one tierce combination in the instrument, I felt that the mutations should be flute scaled. Principal scaled mutations cannot weld into a Cornet, yet the 8′-22⁄3′-13⁄5′ flute combination can, in a good acoustic, convince one that there is a Sesquialtera present. This places the Cornet in a position to enter into dialogue with the half-length cylindrical reed in the Positiv while still contributing to the Grand-Jeu.

The original plan called for independent ranks for the 16′ Bassoon and 8′ Oboe, but they were reconceived as a unit when the organ was expanded to three manuals. An unexpected feature of the capped, full-length 16′ Bassoon is that when drawn in the Pedal by duplex action, it sits beautifully beneath the strings, as a surrogate Violone, and adds color and pitch identity to the Pedal line in softer combinations.

The Positiv borrows a bit from the Georgian chamber organ and a bit from the Continental Baroque, but is neither. Open flue stops at 8′ pitch were common practice for the secondary manual divisions of Bach’s time and culture. The chronic omission of such tone, as well as the frequent absence of the 4′ Principal during the Orgelbewegung’s American manifestation, perpetuated an imbalance between the Great and Positiv. The utility of the 8′ Dulciana cannot be overstated, especially when it leans more toward an Echo Diapason than the type of neutered, bland string placed in American organs of a century ago. The two-rank mixture is not high-pitched, as the Positiv differentiates itself by its weight and texture without having the upperwork separate from the ensemble. The 8′ Clarinet is made of very hard black zinc and is notably bold and broad in tone, voiced brightly so as to work well in both French organ repertoire and its characteristic soli in English anthem accompaniments. The Herald Trumpet, which plays from this manual, is placed in the triforium on the Gospel side of the sanctuary and is the most brilliant stop in the organ.

The Pedal division is derived from four boldly scaled unit ranks and carefully selected mezzo-forte stops either borrowed or extended from the manual divisions, with the 8′ Principal in the Gospel façade. The 16′ Dulciana, extended from the Positiv, is worth its weight in gold for its utility and elegance, and allows for the forcefulness of the 16′ Open Wood Bass to fully undergird the ensemble. The 16′ Trombone unit, despite its brassy flair, is warm and round, and rolls down the nave dramatically. It is scaled and voiced for the Pedal, rather than being a conceptual extension of the Great Trumpet, a practice which can lead to inadequate support in the bass.

The visual element

It is a challenge to be invited to design and build an organ after another builder’s recommended alterations have been made to the edifice. A freestanding organ in a resonant case, recessed slightly into one of the transepts, would have been ideal, but two factors negated that possibility. Reinforced concrete platforms projecting into each transept were already in place at the direction of the previously selected builder. Worshippers and visitors to the cathedral had been looking at those empty shelves and gaping holes in the transept walls for a decade and a half, and expected a resolution. In addition, three fine mosaics in the Byzantine style had been commissioned for each of the building’s apses, and their beauty had to remain in view.

My series of concept sketches began with a sculptural “pipes in the open” array, which quickly revealed itself to be contextually inappropriate. As a preservation architect attuned to precedent and context, I felt that the mid-20th-century treatment was an evasion of artistic responsibility, so I moved forward by cataloguing the building’s architectural elements. One principle of fine interior design is that if stylistically disparate furnishings are placed in a room, the gesture is most successful when they are at least two historical periods apart.

The cathedral case design, as built, combines pendant pairs of pipe stockades with wooden casework. The former is a nod to what Midwestern American builders were producing for Catholic churches at the time the cathedral was built, and the latter was inspired by my walk-through of the permanent stage settings of Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico of 1585, in which he used classical architectural elements in forced perspective to create the illusion of greater height and depth in the built environment. Unconventional as this treatment may be, one has the sense that the portions of the instrument that flank the liturgical focus of the building were always in place and meant to be there. Rather than being imposed distractions, they tend to sweep the eye back toward the sanctuary.

Beyond the walls

When a church or synagogue asks its membership to contribute funds toward a major project, the campaign is most successful if it enhances the lives of those beyond the circle of donors. If pipe organs are heard only during religious services and are kept under lock and key at all other times, a barrier is erected between the institution and the inquisitive listener. The organ is one of many tools that can bring the surrounding community into the congregation’s sphere of ministry.

The area’s organists and academics have taken note of this instrument in part because it offers a new perspective on the performance of the post-Mendelssohnian organ repertoire without rejecting any of the structure of the golden age of the organ. In a region that until recently has favored the interpretive neoclassicism of the last century, organ students are welcomed to a new pipe organ of a more inclusive academic style.

Large-scale choral works and the hundreds of pieces written for organ with solo instruments or orchestra will be more authentically experienced in this peaceful, spiritual, resonant space. The Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Twin Ports Wind Orchestra, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Duluth-Superior Symphony Chorus, Superior Diocesan Chorale, and myriad collegiate ensembles have a new resource through which to expand and vitalize the musical life of the region.

—Sebastian Glück

Personnel:

Sebastian M. Glück, Artistic and Tonal Director

Albert Jensen-Moulton, General Manager

Robert Ahlborg

Joseph DiSalle

Keith Goss

Dominic Inferrera

John Kawa

Robert Rast

William Wildenberg

David Winek

 

Suppliers:

Organ Supply Industries, A. R. Schopp’s Sons, Syndyne, Peterson Electro-Musical Products

 

GREAT – Manual II

16′ Bourdon (ext 8′) 12 pipes

8′ Open Diapason 58 pipes

8′ Bourdon 58 pipes

8′ Harmonic Flute (a) 49 pipes

8′ Viole de Gambe Swell

4′ Principal 58 pipes

4′ Spire Flute 58 pipes

2′ Fifteenth 58 pipes

Chorus Mixture IV 232 pipes

8′ Trumpet (b) 14 pipes

Tremulant

8′ Clarinet Positiv

8′ Herald Trumpet Positiv

Great Silent

SWELL – Manual III – enclosed

8′ Open Diapason 58 pipes

8′ Stopped Diapason 58 pipes

8′ Viole de Gambe 58 pipes

8′ Voix Céleste (TC) 46 pipes

4′ Principal 58 pipes

4′ Harmonic Flute 58 pipes

22⁄3′ Nazard 58 pipes

2′ Quarte de Nazard 58 pipes

13⁄5′ Tierce 58 pipes

Mixture III 174 pipes

16′ Bassoon (ext 8′) 12 pipes

8′ Trumpet 58 pipes

8′ Oboe 58 pipes

  Tremulant

16′ Swell to Swell

4′ Swell to Swell

POSITIV – Manual I

8′ Viole de Gambe Swell

8′ Dulciana 58 pipes

8′ Holzgedeckt 58 pipes

4′ Principal 58 pipes

4′ Chimney Flute 58 pipes

2′ Recorder 58 pipes

Sharp Mixture II 116 pipes

8′ Clarinet 58 pipes

Tremulant

8′ Trumpet Great

8′ Oboe Swell

16′ Herald Trumpet (fr 8′) 

8′ Herald Trumpet 58 pipes

Positiv Silent

PEDAL

32′ Untersatz (c)

16′ Open Wood Bass 32 pipes

16′ Dulciana (ext Pos 8′) 12 pipes

16′ Sub Bass 32 pipes

16′ Bourdon Great

8′ Principal 32 pipes

8′ Sub Bass (ext 16′) 12 pipes

8′ Viola Swell

8′ Dulciana Positiv

8′ Bourdon Great

4′ Fifteenth (ext 8′) 12 pipes

4′ Flute Great

16′ Trombone 32 pipes

16′ Bassoon Swell

8′ Trumpet (ext 16′) 12 pipes

8′ Bassoon Swell

4′ Clarion (ext 16′) 12 pipes

4′ Clarinet Positiv

8′ Great to Pedal

8′ Swell to Pedal

4′ Swell to Pedal

8′ Positiv to Pedal

16′ Swell to Great

8′ Swell to Great

4′ Swell to Great

8′ Positiv to Great

8′ Swell to Positiv

Great/Positiv Transfer

(a) C1–G#9 from 8′ Open Diapason

(b) extension of Pedal Trombone unit

(c) C1–B12 resultant from Open Wood Bass

 

Three manuals, 37 ranks, 2,107 pipes

Positiv Sharp Mixture II

C1 19.22

C25 15.19

F#31 12.15

A46 08.15

 

Swell Mixture III

C1 15.19.22

C13 12.15.22

C37 08.12.15

C49 01.08.12

 

Great Chorus Mixture IV

C1 19.22.26.29

C13 15.19.22.26

G#33 12.15.19.22

F#43 08.12.15.19

C#51 05.08.12.15

 

Builder’s website: www.gluckpipeorgans.com

Cathedral website: https://superiorcathedral.org

Photo by John Kawa.

John Bishop

Why sell an organ?

Boston has long been a center for pipe organ building starting before 1810 with William Goodrich and Thomas Appleton and continuing with E. & G. G. Hook (later E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings, and later still Hook & Hastings), George Stevens, George Hutchings, Ernest Skinner, Aeolian-Skinner, Andover, Fisk, Noack, and many others. I have calculated that in over two hundred years, Boston organ builders collectively produced around 9,000 instruments. Compare that to the single firm of M. P. Möller, Inc., which built roughly 13,500 organs in around 120 years. Many of those were simple stock models like the ubiquitous Artiste, which in some years were pushed out the door at the rate of more than one a day.

Starting in the early 1960s, several new companies were formed to help usher in the “tracker revival,” most notably Fisk and Noack. Among those lesser known today was Robert Roche, whose workshop was in Taunton, Massachusetts. Bob was of Portuguese heritage, well informed, and a very fast talker—it was hard to get a word in edgewise. Along with his activities building, rebuilding, and restoring organs, he ran a small-scale organ supply company, providing parts, tools, and supplies for pipe organ builders. In the late 1980s when I was starting the Bishop Organ Company, I drove to Taunton to pick up a load of something or other, and during the expected yak-fest, Bob gave me his best advice for a nascent independent organbuilder, “Never build an organ for a wealthy church. You’ll create your magnum opus, and they’ll swap it out in twenty years.” I remember thinking if I ever had a chance to build an instrument for a wealthy church, I would go ahead and take my chances, and as far as I know, Bob never had that opportunity.

Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal) in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, my mother’s home parish, is nestled in an affluent neighborhood a couple miles west of Boston. The original organ by Kimball, Smallman, & Frazee was installed in 1915 when the building was completed. Möller Opus 9475 was installed there in 1961, followed by Noack Opus 111 in 1989. Schoenstein Opus 172 replaced the Noack in 2018, the third organ I have known personally in the same church, and the third organ there in less than thirty years. My first organ teacher, Alastair Cassels-Brown, was organist at Redeemer in the 1980s, and I maintained the Möller for him. My college pal Gregg Romatowski was organist there when the Noack was acquired. Sadly, Gregg died of AIDS shortly thereafter.

My dear friend Michael Murray, who shared organist duties at my wedding to Wendy with his husband Stuart Forster, had a productive tenure at Redeemer during which the Schoenstein organ was commissioned, twelve years after Schoenstein Opus 149 was installed at Christ Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Stuart was organist. The Organ Clearing House removed the Noack and returned it to the Noack shop in Georgetown, Massachusetts, where it was renovated and enhanced for Saint Paul’s Chapel on lower Broadway in New York City, part of the fabled congregation of Trinity Church, Wall Street. We installed the organ at Saint Paul’s, and later helped install the Schoenstein at Redeemer.

Our wedding was at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Newcastle, Maine, home of Hutchings Opus 182 (1888) and the first church building designed by the brilliant ecclesiastical architect Henry Vaughan. Vaughan wanted the ceiling painted with frescoes, but funds were not available, so he did it himself, lying on his back on scaffolding. (Henry Vaughan also designed Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill.) Stephen White, a former student of my father who taught homiletics at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was rector of Saint Andrew’s at the time of our wedding. He and dad celebrated the wedding together. Stephen was the former rector at Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill.

Did you get all of that? It is hard to imagine that I could have so many connections with one church except to add that I accompanied a local choral society in a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D Minor on the Noack organ at Redeemer a few days after September 11, 2001.

Of course, there have been hundreds of other churches in my life. Even as adults, my kids still joke that when driving, I navigate by steeples. 

What were they thinking?

From my seat in the Organ Clearing House, the concept of changing organs is always on my mind. Several times a week, I hear from a church wishing to buy or sell an instrument, and I am usually corresponding about ten organs at any given time. It has been especially intense in the last few weeks as we placed an instrument built by Mander Organ Builders in 1991 for Christ Episcopal Church, Pittsford, New York, on the market. It has two manuals and twenty-five stops and an especially beautiful case with brilliant proportions, rich carvings, and polished tin façade pipes with gilded mouths. The organ glows in the dark.

When I published the organ’s availability on our website and posted a link on Facebook, several serious potential purchasers responded quickly, as did the all-knowing community of organ watchers who lurk there. “What church would sell an organ like that?” “A praise band must be next.” 

The Mander organ replaced a Wicks built in 1947 that had been “improved” several times by technicians whose intent exceeded their abilities. The new organ, standing prominently on the church’s long axis, brought brilliance and clarity of tone to the room for the first time. The Mander was fifteen years old when the rector encouraged the enhancement of the music program. The music director’s position was expanded to full-time with a mandate to expand the choir program, bringing a new level of excellence and depth to the music of worship. The growing choir, which had been seated in the rear of the church with the Mander, returned to seats in the chancel. Organist David Baskeyfield brought in a Hauptwerk instrument to accompany the choir and lead music from the chancel, and an organ committee is working on plans for the acquisition of a new pipe organ to be placed around and behind the chancel, especially designed for sophisticated choral accompaniment.

All this reflects the church’s thoughtful and constructive commitment to excellence in music, not irresponsibility for the Mander organ. As I write this, I am corresponding with several potential purchasers where the organ would be placed in superior acoustics and appreciated for its many strengths. It is a thrill to watch a church’s music program grow quickly enough to outgrow a brilliant thirty-year-old organ. I commend the church for bringing two fine organs into existence, and I am grateful for the lively chat online about this superb instrument.

Better get it out of there. . . .

In 2002, I was asked to sell an organ built by Hellmuth Wolff in 1976 with two manuals and seventeen stops. Hellmuth was upset that the church was rejecting his organ and asked me to convince them to keep it, but the church’s new organist was eager to have a large four-manual digital instrument and had no interest in retaining the Wolff organ. When I learned that the organist’s domestic partner was the senior warden of the church, I was pretty sure we were not going to stop it, and when that organist suggested that some of the pipes from the Wolff might be retained to enhance the digital instrument, I told Hellmuth that we had better get that organ out of there before something bad happened to it.

The organ was purchased by Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church in Durham, North Carolina, which already owned a one-manual organ by John Brombaugh. In 2003 we moved the Brombaugh to the front of the church and installed the Wolff organ in the balcony. The church brought Hellmuth to Durham for the dedication of the organ, a happy moment for him after so much frustration and disappointment.

Hellmuth Wolff was born in 1937 in Switzerland, apprenticed with Metzler, and then worked for Rieger and Fisk. He moved to Canada in 1963 to work as a designer in the new mechanical-action department at Casavant alongside Karl Wilhelm. In 1964, he and Karl installed a forty-six-rank Casavant, Opus 2791, at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The Organ Clearing House subsequently sold that organ to Saint Theresa Catholic Church in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was relocated by Messrs. Czeluzniak et Dugal in 2005. Juget-Sinclair Opus 4 with two manuals and forty-five ranks was installed at Saint Andrew’s in 2006. Organ Clearing House president Amory Atkins and his wife Virginia Childs were married at Saint Andrew’s in 1991. Hellmuth and Karl both established successful independent firms in Québec. Hellmuth passed away in 2013.

Miles and piles . . .

Nativity Catholic Church in Timonium, Maryland, was home to a twelve-rank Schlicker organ built in 1986. We sold the organ to All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Kapa’a, Hawaii, in 2015. The reason the organ was offered for sale was obvious the instant I entered the building, as predicted by one of the errant Mander commentators. There was an elaborate rock-and-roll setup adjacent to the organ console, with miles and piles of wire coiled and snaking about, woven between microphone stands, mixers, drums, and stools. We found handfuls of guitar picks and used nine-volt batteries instead of the usual pencils under the pedalboard. We sent the organ to Rosales Organ Builders in Los Angeles. They renovated and expanded the organ and installed it at All Saints’ in 2020. Adam Pajan played the dedicatory recitals. Shane Morris Wise is the organist at All Saints’.

If the shoe fits . . .

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Glendale, California, was home to a forty-four-rank Schlicker organ with three manuals built in 1963. In 2008, the organ was ready for renovation, and the people of Saint Mark’s chose to offer it for sale so they could acquire a more “Anglican” instrument. First Lutheran Church of Montclair, New Jersey, purchased the organ in 2010. It was renovated and relocated by the Organ Clearing House, and installation was completed in 2015. Pastor Will Moser of First Lutheran Church, now retired, is also an organist. He had grown up in the thrall of Schlicker organs, considering them to be the quintessential Lutheran instrument.

Saint Mark’s Church in Glendale acquired Skinner Organ Company Opus 774, built in 1930 with three manuals and thirty ranks. It was restored and installed by Foley-Baker, Inc., in 2009. With two expressive divisions, three pairs of celestes, and three colorful orchestral reeds, that organ is ideally suited for the Anglican liturgy and the accompaniment of Anglican choral music and chants. Two radically different organs were exchanged to provide their congregations with instruments especially well suited for their individual musical traditions.

§

I have written about organs being sold because styles and opinions change, or because an active church outgrows an instrument, but of course the most common reason for the sale of pipe organs is the closing or merging of churches. When a congregation dwindles and its resources are stretched too thin for feasible operation and starts planning for the sale of their building, they should also begin planning for the future of their organ. Conversely, real estate developers often contact me about selling an organ in a building they have purchased when there is a month or less before they start demolition.

When selling a pipe organ, a year is like a lightning strike. When a church is considering acquiring an organ, there is typically a long committee process. A group travels to audition an available organ and organbuilders inspect it and provide proposals for renovation and relocation, which are presented to the congregation. Organ committees, music committees, finance committees, and parish councils or vestries discuss the proposals. Sometimes fundraising does not start until that entire process is complete. The organ that was offered for sale a month before demolition has long been reduced to rubble.

A church that is considering closing should start working on the sale of an organ as soon as feasible. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but it is better than watching an organ go down. When there is time to work with, an organ can command a higher price—its cash value plummets as time runs out. This also applies to the church that has commissioned a new instrument and faces a deadline for the removal of an organ. The worst case in that situation is for a church to have to pay to scrap an organ that has run out time. If your church has decided to replace its organ, get the old one on the market right away, even before the new contract is signed.

Another option to remember when selling a church building is the possibility of retaining ownership of an organ in a sales agreement. If the building sells before the organ, the buyer might agree to allow for the removal of the organ six months, a year, or more after the building changes hands. We once removed a large organ from a church building that had been sold over a year earlier. The original congregation still owned the organ, and the new one was contractually obligated to allow for its removal, but they were not pleased with the impending disruption, and there were some contentious issues to work out. When we offered the use of our scaffolding for the installation of planned new lighting, all the squabbling ended.

The cash value of a vintage pipe organ is determined largely by circumstances and by the market. Any church considering the acquisition of a vintage instrument will be facing significant expense for renovating and relocating the instrument. When a seller insists that the asking price should be comparable to new, I simply remind them that the cost of a new organ includes transportation and installation and assumes that the organ is in mint condition. You have to subtract the cost of relocation, installation, and any necessary renovation to determine a reasonable asking price.

There is a finite amount of money spent on pipe organ projects in the United States every year, and I have adopted the attitude that I need to do all I can to be sure that those precious resources are spent on wonderful instruments. If a church owns a simple organ in poor condition and wants to keep using it, I am ready to encourage them to spend money on repairs, but if there is no hope of a project resulting in a credibly useful organ, I do not see the point. There is such a thing as an organ without any artistic merit. I try to encourage churches looking to purchase an organ to consider those of highest quality first. I am not comfortable advocating a mediocre organ when excellent instruments are available at similar cost. That guides my decisions regarding accepting new listings. There are always many times more organs available than we will ever be able to place, so let us concentrate on the best.

It is immensely satisfying to place a fine organ in a new home once its time has run out somewhere else. New organs are typically planned carefully for the spaces they will inhabit, but it is remarkable how often an instrument adapts beautifully to a new home with minimal changes. We’ll never be able to save them all, but it’s fun to try.

M. P. Rathke, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio; Grace Episcopal Church, Carthage, Missouri

From the builder

When Father Steven Wilson, rector of Grace Church, first invited us to submit a proposal for a new pipe organ, he had my undivided attention from the start. Father Steve spoke of a historic 1869 Episcopal church with a distinguished tradition of liturgy and music, as well as a longtime focus on drama and the visual arts. Subsequent conversations led to the commissioning of our Opus 12, whose future arrival both church and organ builder looked forward to with fine enthusiasm.

First, though, we were challenged with designing a successful organ for a dry acoustic, in a space as compact and intimate as it is beautiful, and likely utilizing a somewhat unorthodox placement. Father Steve quipped that our reputation for engineering 10 lbs. to fit the proverbial 5-lb. bag would surely be tested here, and his words were to prove prescient.

Precisely where the organ would go was our first decision. The existing instrument, a decaying pipe/electronic combination whose metal pipework was nonetheless of extraordinary quality, if not voiced to its full potential, included a set of deep flower box-style windchests hung from the end wall of a shallow transept (see photo: “Removing pipework”). This singular arrangement did locate pipework high in the room, thus engaging the ceiling and helping carry sound out into the nave; it also created rather a claustrophobic atmosphere, looming darkly over choristers below, blocking light from a trio of high windows above, and literally overshadowing the transept. My first reaction—which some might consider unusual for an organbuilder—was “Father Steve, whatever we do, we’ve got to uncover those windows and get those pipes down off the wall.” Easily enough said, of course, but then where could they go, with floor space already at a premium?

The building helped make that decision for us. There was really only one location suitable for the choir in this small church: the transept, where the choir already sat. And the organ clearly needed to be close to the choir, not only for musical reasons, but also so that organist/choirmaster Peter Frost could continue to conduct from the console. Father Steve, himself a talented chorister, saw potential benefits in my suggestion that the main organ case be located per Sketch A, with the attached keydesk oriented as shown.

This is admittedly an unusual blind-corner placement for any significant portion of a pipe organ, let alone the sole two manual divisions, whose resources generally speak to better advantage directly into the main body of the church. But in this case, because the room is quite dry and because we had no opportunity to place manual pipework behind a façade fronting the swell shades—there simply wasn’t enough available depth without crowding the window—we were keen to obtain maximum blend by any legitimate means. It occurred to me that if we allowed sound to mix first in the transept, then reflect once off the front wall, both blend and projection might be served. And that’s exactly what happened. Early listening during finish voicing disclosed the uncanny illusion that all sound was actually emanating from the front walls (somehow!), producing a clarity and presence in the nave that both puzzled and pleased us.

Grace Church’s lack of acoustical resonance also informed Opus 12’s size and specification, for this is certainly a good-sized organ for a relatively small room. Although sound generally gets around well enough, music doesn’t really bloom, and appreciable reverberation is basically nonexistent. Never having previously designed and voiced for a space like this, I went back to the stately Hook & Hastings instruments I knew, played, and admired during my apprenticeship with C. B. Fisk, Inc.
H & H’s general approach, which greatly informed our work at Grace Church, was to saturate the space with plenty of rich fundamental tone, undergirded by manual doubles (here, one in each department) and supported by a generously scaled and winded Pedal. Reeds would almost invariably be on the smoother side, upperwork colorful but by no means aggressive.

Guided by Dr. Susan Marchant of nearby Pittsburg State University, the church settled on a two-manual, 24-stop specification with suspended mechanical key action, apart from the largest bass pipes, which are winded via conventional electro-pneumatic chests. Most of these large pipes reside in the so-called “Attic Pedal” division behind a speaking tin façade fronting a shallow chamber with limited headroom. Most interior Attic Pedal pipes are thus placed horizontally, as are notes #1–19 of the Great 16′ Bourdon, the latter located beneath the choir platform. The full-length 16′ Double Trumpet stands within the main case.

The pipework has truly eclectic origins. From the previous instrument we retained six choice ranks of 30% tin, superbly crafted by Stinkens, the renowned Dutch pipemaking firm. (The original voicers having really done no meaningful voicing, we were able to start essentially from scratch with fresh, unvoiced pipes.) Several lovely stops of pine, poplar, and oak were acquired from a church that was set to be demolished in a neighboring town. The remainder of Opus 12’s pipework is new.

Casework design was the result of a close and lengthy collaborative effort between Father Steve and me. Happily, both of us wished the organ to look as if it had always been there. The results reflect Father Steve’s and my firm conviction that, where possible, an organ’s casework and ornamentation should be in congenial dialogue with the room’s architecture and appointments.

Carvings were designed and executed by noted Boston-area sculptor Morgan Faulds Pike, who wrote the following in preparation for the organ’s dedication:

The carved white oak panels—above the console, above the swell shades, and in the attic pedal case—represent flora and fauna which symbolically resonate with the church interior, the city of Carthage, and, most endearingly, Father Steven Wilson’s specific requests for a carefully camouflaged “sparrow and her nest” (Psalm 84:3) and “somewhere, a little mouse.” Our design process was a stimulating collaboration from which Father Steve’s wishes and my design drawings produced something more like a working friendship than a design challenge.

The Alpha and Omega shades on the Attic Pedal directly relate to other A & Ω carvings in the room. The maple and oak leaf designs are representative of Carthage, Missouri (“The Maple Leaf City”) and the organ’s quartered oak casework, respectively. Above the console two panels, one depicting a Marian rose, the other the ancient Holly and Ivy of pre-Christian ritual, echo motifs that appear in more simplified forms elsewhere in the church. The designs evolved in keeping with Father Steve’s desire for the case to have everything to do with the church interior and the greater community; I must say here that they also reflect his own remarkable and unselfconscious aura of holiness. He wished the sparrow and her nest to be discretely perched within one of the swell façade shades, to be discovered only after some study. We based the sparrow on a North American song sparrow that was nesting at the time in a bush beneath Father Steve’s window. Her beautiful song might just allude to the choir singing beneath her perch above the swell louvres. The mouse, “a creature of great personal valor,” is a cheeky surprise, clinging to the lower frame of an otherwise-smooth front pipe shade.

This organ has been at once the most difficult and most rewarding we’ve ever undertaken, owing partly to the fact that so much of it is densely woven into the fabric of this lovely historic structure, one where nothing is truly level, plumb, or square. We thank the parishioners and staff of Grace Church for their unswerving support, friendship, and patience during installation and finish voicing. We sincerely hope our Opus 12 will serve this remarkable church for years to come.

—Michael Rathke

Builders of the organ

Saskia Croé

Rebecca Madison

Lauren McAllister

Stella O’Neill

Michael Rathke

Caleb Ringwald

Jefimija Zlatanovic

 

We are deeply grateful to the following individuals and organizations:

†The Reverend Steven Wilson (project leadership)

Dr. Susan Marchant (consultation)

Brad White (technical assistance)

Peter Frost (onsite voicing assistance)

Paige Rhymer (onsite voicing assistance)

A. J. Rhymer (onsite voicing assistance)

Will Endicott (onsite voicing assistance)

Jerin Kelley (onsite voicing assistance)

Chris Church (onsite voicing assistance)

Morgan Faulds Pike (carvings)

Nami Hamada (tonal finisher)

Casey Dunaway (tonal finisher)

Vladimir Vaculik (solid state installation)

Patrick J. Murphy & Associates (casework)

 

Diagram and photo credits

All photographs by Regina Newport except as noted:

Sketch A – Michael Rathke

Removing pipework – John Hacker, The Joplin Globe (used by permission)

 

From the organist/choirmaster

It was my great fortune to accept the position of organist/choirmaster at Grace Episcopal Church in 2017, just as the organ committee was reviewing proposals for a new instrument. Happily, the group needed little persuasion to select M. P. Rathke, Inc., to build their new organ. (By coincidence, I had just completed a summer internship in the Rathke workshop.) We worked with the builder to create a stoplist to fulfill a variety of needs: accompanying the choir, supporting congregational singing, and convincingly playing the repertoire, all while occupying a decidedly small space.

In addition, the 1890s nave would undergo significant cosmetic changes that, while uncovering original details of the building, might potentially be jarring for parishioners. Melinda Wilson, a gifted artist, fashioned an elaborate and clever gingerbread organ and choir layout based on the contract drawings so church-goers had an early 3-D explanation of the new look they could expect as the instrument took shape. The late Reverend Steven C. Wilson motivated the parish to fund the continuation of a well-established tradition of Anglican music. In signature Father Steve jest, threats of an “Organ Donor Dinner,” at which would be served the internal organs of various critters, resulted in many generous donations. The Reverend Joseph Pierjok expertly followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, continuing to support the construction of Opus 12 and bolstering the legacy of traditional worship at Grace.

Upon completion of Opus 12, the congregation immediately became less cautious singers, now being supported by the organ, rather than drowned in electronic sound. The choir enjoys improved acoustics: where they’d previously been tucked under imposing “flower boxes” that both stifled their sound and covered original stained glass, the transept is now open all the way to the ceiling. Voices now fill the space with ease, and the design of the case blends seamlessly into the architecture of the building.

Opus 12 is a welcome addition to the shrinking inventory of traditional instruments in southwest Missouri. It has been a great joy to help create an organ that will be an integral part of worship at Grace Church for generations to come.

—Peter Frost

GREAT (expressive, Manual I)

16′ Bourdon white pine & red oak 58 pipes

8′ Principal zinc & 50% tin 58 pipes

8′ Chimney Flute 30% tin 58 pipes

4′ Octave 50% tin 58 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Twelfth 50% tin 58 pipes

2′ Fifteenth 30% tin 58 pipes

1-3⁄5′ Seventeenth 30% tin 54 pipes

2′ Mixture III 50% tin 174 pipes

Zimbelstern

SWELL (expressive, Manual II)

8′ Dulciana (1–11 façade) zinc & 50% tin 58 pipes

8′ Celeste (TC) 50% tin 46 pipes

8′ Stopped Diapason white oak 58 pipes

4′ Principal 50% tin 58 pipes

4′ Open Flute 30% tin 58 pipes

2-2⁄3′ Quinte 30% tin 58 pipes

2′ Doublette 30% tin 58 pipes

16′ Bass Clarinet zinc & 50% tin 58 pipes

8′ Trumpet zinc & antimonial lead 58 pipes

PEDAL (unenclosed)

16′ Subbass poplar and 50% tin 30 pipes

16′ Bourdon (Great)

8′ Open Diapason (12–30 façade) pine & 70% tin 30 pipes

8′ Bass Flute (ext Subbass) 12 pipes

4′ Octave (ext Open Diapason) 12 pipes

16′ Double Trumpet (ext Swell) zinc & 30% tin 12 pipes

8′ Trumpet (Swell)

 

Three unison couplers

General tremulant

Direct mechanical key action apart from certain large bass pipes

Electric stop action with solid-state combination action

24 stops, 21 ranks, 1,182 pipes

 

Builder’s website: www.rathkepipeorgans.com

 

Church’s website: gracecarthage1869.org/